Abstract
Memories of the World Cup final of 1966 - England’s controversial third goal in particular - are deeply embedded in popular culture, though probably more so in England than in Germany. For the ‘fifty years of hurt’ since 1966, English football has lived in its shadow, not least because of tbe failure of any England team since that date to equal the achievements of Bobby Moore and his colleagues and the determination of the tabloid press to ensure that the event is not forgotten. In contrast, German response to the disappointment of defeat and the injustice of Das Wembleytor has generally been more restrained, though there was some excitement in the 1990s when Oxford University scientists ‘proved’ that Hurst’s shot had not crossed the line. This chapter explores reactions to the match at the time and seeks to explain how this key moment in Anglo-German cultural relations has been remembered over tbe following decades.
Zusammenfassung
Erinnerungen an das Endspiel der Weltmeisterschaft von 1966 - und insbesondere an das umstrittene dritte Tor der Engländer - sind in der populären Kulturgeschichte tief verankert, jedoch eher in England als in Deutschland. In den ‘fifty years of hurt’ seit 1966 existierte der englische Fußball im Schatten dieses Ereignisses, da seitdem keine englische Mannschaft mehr mit dem Erfolg von Bobby Moore und seinen Mannschaftskollegen gleichziehen konnte. Die englischen Boulevardmedien etwa erinnern bis heute mit großem Nachdruck an die Unvergänglichkeit dieses Spiels. Im Gegensatz dazu waren die deutschen Reaktionen auf die Enttäuschung der Niederlage und die Ungerechtigkeit des Wembleytors insgesamt zurückhaltender. Erst als in den 1990ern Wissenschaftler der Universität Oxford ‘bewiesen’, dass Hursts Schuss die Linie nicht überquert hatte, gab es begeisterte Zustimmung. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht der Beitrag damalige Reaktionen auf das Spiel und versucht zu erklären, wie dieser Schlüsselmoment der englisch-deutschen kulturellen Beziehungen in den folgenden Jahrzehnten erinnert wurde.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Ardagh, J. (1995): Germany and the Germans: the United Germany in the mid –1950s. London: Penguin Books.
Armfi eld, J. (with Andrew Collomosse) (2004): Right Back to the Beginning: the Autobiography. London: Headline.
Arnott, J. (2001): He Kills Coppers. London: Sceptre.
Banks, G. (2002): Banksy: My Autobiography. London: Michael Joseph.
Chapman, P. (1999): The Goalkeeper’s History of Britain. London: FourThestate.
Cohen, G. (2005): My Autobiography. London: Headline.
Cowley, J. (2009): The Last Game: Love, Death and Football. London: Simon & Schuster.
Downing, D. (2001): The Best of Enemies: England v Germany. London: Bloomsbury.
Giles, J. (2004): The Parlour and the Suburb: Domestic Identities, Class, Femininity and Modernity. Oxford: Berg.
Glanville, B. (1999): Football Memories. London: Virgin Publishing.
Goldblatt, D. (2006): The Ball is Round: a Global History of Football. London: Viking.
Hattenstone, S. (2006): The Best of Times: What Became of the Heroes of ‘66’. London: Guardian Books.
Henschel, G./Willen, G. (eds) (1996): Drin oder Linie? Alles übers dritte Tor. Leipzig: Reclam.
Hesse-Lichtenberger, U. (2002): Tor! The Story of German Football. London: WSC Books.
Honigstein, R. (2009): Englischer Fussball: A German’s View of Our Beautiful Game. London: Yellow Jersey Press.
Massarella, L./Moynihan, L. (eds) (2006): Match of My Life: England World Cup. Studley: Know the Score Books.
McIlvanney, H. (1966): The Final: England v West Germany. In: McIlvanney, H. (ed): World Cup ’66. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
Porter, D. (2009): Egg and Chips with the Connellys: Remembering 1966. In: Sport in History, 29 (3), 519–39.
Porter, D. (2004): “Your Boys Took One Hell of a Beating”: English football and British Decline, c1950–80. In: Porter, D./Smith, A. (eds.): Sport and National Identity in the Post-War World. London: Routledge, 31–51.
Powell, J. (2002): Bobby Moore: the Life and Times of a Sporting Hero. London: Robson Books, fi rst published in 1993.
Ramsden, J. (2006): Don’t Mention the War: The British and the Germans since 1890. London: Little, Brown.
Reid, I./Zisserman, A. (1996): Goal-directed Video Metrology. Proceedings of the FourTheuropean Conference on Computer Vision. Cambridge UK, vol. II.
Sandbrook, D. (2007): White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties. London: Abacus.
Schimmang, J. (1979): Der schöne Vogel Phönix: Erinnerungen eines Dreißigjähren. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Thomson, D. (1996): 4–2. London: Bloomsbury Publications.
Waine, A. (1989): Recent German Writing and the Infl uence of Popular Culture. In: Bullivant, K. (ed): Aft er the “Death of Literature”: West German Writing of the 1970s. Oxford: Berg, 69–87.
Walldorf, H. (Erich Loest) (1967): Der Mörder saß im Wembley-Stadion. Halle: Volk und Welt.
Weight, R. (2002): Patriots: National Identity in Britain 1940–2000.Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Young, C. (2007): Two World Wars and One World Cup: Humour, Trauma and the Asymmetric Relationship in Anglo-German Football. In: Sport in History, 27 (1), 2007, 10–14.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Porter, D., Wagner, C. (2014). Over the Line? England, Germany and Wembley 1966. In: Waine, A., Naglo, K. (eds) On and Off the Field. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-00133-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-00133-9_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden
Print ISBN: 978-3-658-00132-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-658-00133-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Science (German Language)